SARAJEVO PRESS: DEL PONTE WILL BRING NEW INDICTMENTS

SARAJEVO, May 5 (Hina) - The chief prosecutor of the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Carla Del Ponte, will visit Sarajevo this month to bring a set of sealed indictments against highly positioned Croat and Muslim politicians and army officers, Sarajevo's dailies "Oslobodjenje" and "Jutarnje novine" of Monday report. #L# Quoting sources close to the Stabilisation Force and international representatives, Oslobodjenje reports that during her visit to Sarajevo on May 19 Del Ponte will deliver indictments against six Bosnian Croats and probably three Muslims. The local media have been speculating about the names of the potential indictees and Del Ponte reportedly revealed their identity to Croatian Premier Ivica Racan during her last visit to Zagreb. Heading the list of the new indictees is reportedly a former prime minister of Herceg-Bosna, Jadranko Prlic, war-time defence and interior ministers Bruno Stojic and Valentin Coric, as well as former Croat Defence Council (HVO) members, generals Milivoj Petkovic, Stanko Sopta Baja and Zlatan Mijo Jelic. The former politicians of Herceg-Bosna are charged in line with command responsibility with setting up camps where imprisoned Bosniaks were held in inhumane conditions. There are no indications of what generals Sopta and Jelic could be indicted for. The decision on whether the indictments would also be formally issued should be made after May 14, "after one of the Croats from Herzegovina gives a statement to the Hague investigators as an indictee", the media report. The U.N. tribunal's prosecution is reportedly wrapping up an investigation into the persecution and killing of Croats and Serbs in the area of Bugojno. Along with the war-time head of Bugojno municipality, Dzevad Mlaco, who is directly charged with ordering the killing of 35 Croat prisoners, indictments could also be issued against the local police chief, Senad Dautovic, and Selmo Cikotic, a general in the army of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Cikotic currently holds the post of commander of the federal army's Sarajevo Corps and during the war was the highest-ranking officer of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Bugojno area. (hina) rml